I. SUBJECTCarol Milford is a student of Blodgett College, and the protagonist of Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. Her ambition is to settle down in a prairie village and transform it into a place of beauty. She works as a librarian at St. Paul after her graduation. She marries the doctor Kennicott, whom she met at a friend’s house. Life in Gopher Prairie offers no challenges.

Kennicott takes her on a long tour to California and other places. Carol returns to Gopher Prairie and tries to be enthusiastic about the town but feels tired of the hypocrisy and decides to leave. Kennicott feels distressed and she assures him that she would come back if she is able to find out what she needs.

She works in Washington for two years. Kennicott visits her in Washington to woo her for the second time. Carol mellows and admits her desire to return to Gopher Prairie. Kennicott asks her to return only when she is prepared.

She talks to the leader of the suffrage movement who tells her that she cannot achieve anything without total dedication. She convinces Carol that she can play at least a small role in changing life by persistently asking questions whenever she finds anything that hinders social change. Her life in Washington helps her to acquire a mature outlook towards life and is at last able to accept Gopher Prairie and its people as they are, but she does not give up her fight to make Gopher Prairie a better place. She gives birth to a daughter and feels optimistic that her daughter will carry on the fight that she had started and witness a united world. II. THEME

The main theme of the story is rebellion and reformation. The rebellion is against materialism, lack of equality between the rich and the poor, the ugliness of the town, its narrow-mindedness and its prejudices. Carol wants to reform the town by teaching the people to appreciate poetry and to surround themselves with beauty and by teaching them to play. She tries to put up a play, read poetry to Kennicott and campaign for a new city hall, school and a better rest room and also by organizing parties and games. Though she cannot bring about any radical changes, her triumph lies in putting up a fight and keeping her faith.

Main Street brings to light the discontent of the protagonist because of her inability to bring about a change in the attitudes of the people of Gopher Prairie. She appreciates beauty of simplicity. She believes that life should uphold the virtues of equality and freedom. She disapproves of exploitation. Therefore she opposes the industrialization which wipes out the beauty of the land and the spirit of adventure of the pioneers of America.

She also rebels against the exploitation of the farmers and the laborers. She incurs the wrath of the matrons of Gopher Prairie by paying six dollars a week to her maid and also by justifying the wages by pointing out that the job they did is very tedious. She insists that the rest room for the farmer’s wives should have better facilities, because it brought the farmer’s business to the merchants of the town.

The reforms she proposes are very simple. She wants beautiful buildings. She wants to cultivate the taste of the people. She wants to teach the farmer’s wives the proper way to care for their babies and to make good stew. She suggests setting up an employment bureau so that they will not depend on charity. The women of Gopher Prairie snigger at Carol’s suggestions. They oppose the idea of empowering the poor women to be self-sufficient because that will deny them the chance to be charitable. When Carol suggests that they should mend the clothes before handing them out as charity, the women pounce once again on Carol and overrule the suggestion as unnecessary because it would encourage those women to be lazy.

Carol feels frustrated by this mindlessness. Hence she leaves Gopher Prairie so that she can find out what she can achieve in life. In Washington, she gains the objectivity necessary for any...

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BASIC OUTLINE FOR AN EXPLICATIONDETEXTE
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Reading the text
1. Read the text out loud several times, paying attention to its difficulties (words, expressions, grammar).
2. Ask yourself at this point some general questions about the text. Is it is comic, serious; a monologue, dialog (slow or rapid); is it a description, reflection, confession, etc?
3. Try to find the rhythm of the text: slow, rapid, even, uneven.
4. The purpose of this reading is to make your first concrete observations about the form and content of the text. You should get a sense of the natural tone of the text, the unity or variety of its ideas or expressed feelings.
B. Examine the difficult parts of the text.
1. What do the difficult words and sentences mean? Remember that there may be more than one meaning intended.
2. What do the images (colors, forms, abstractions) and literary, historical, and/or mythological allusions mean? Identify the figures of speech and thought used. See Web sites about Figures of Speech on the Supplementary Materials page (added 8/21/05).
C. Examine the difficult technical aspects.
1. Grammatical structures.
2. Sentence or verse structures.
II. PRESENTATION OF THE TEXT
A. Identification and situation. (Not necessary for in-class exposé)
1. Briefly situate the text and its author historically.
a. Who is the author?
b. When was the text written?
c. In...

...Babbitt: Conformity
In the SinclairLewis novel Babbitt, the character of Babbitt is
completely controlled by the power of conformity. Conformity is so
powerful that even after babbitt realizes the stifling nature of the
society in which he lives he is powerless to change his fate as a member of
conformist society.
George F. Babbitt is a man who is completely controlled by the
conformist society in which he lives. Pressure to conform lies in all
aspects of Babbitt's life. Relationships, family, social life, and
business are all based on his ability to conform to Zenith's preset
standards of thought and action. All of Babbitt's thoughts are controlled
by society. Thoughts that are not those of society are frowned upon.
"What he feels and thinks is what is currently popular to feel and think.
Only once during the two years that we have him under view, does he venture
upon an idea that is remotely original-and that time the heresy almost
ruins him."(Bloom)
At first the reader sees Babbitt as a person more than happy to
conform to the standards set for him by the rest of society. Babbitt goes
about his normal routine praising modern technology, material possessions
and social status as ways to measure the worth of an individual. In fact
the readers first encounter with Babbitt sees him praising modern
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...SinclairLewis was born in Sauk Centre,Minnesota, on 7th February 1885. He was the son of Dr. Edwin J. Lewis and Emma Kermott Lewis. Sadly, Sinclair's mother Emma died when he was only six. In 1892 his father married Isabel Warner. Although he got along with his step mom, he ran away from home and hoped to become a drummer boy in the Spanish-American War when he was thirteen.
In 1902 Lewis went to Oberlin Academy. While there, he developed a religious enthusiasm that fluctuated during the majority of his teen years. In 1903 he attended Yale and worked towards his bachelor's degree. Prior to receiving it, however, he took some time off to work at the socialist commune, Helicon Home Colony, and to travel to Panama. Because Lewis was ugly and seemed self-absorbed to a lot of people, for the most part he had a hard time making friends at both Oberlin and Yale. There were a few exceptions, however. He was able to maintain a handful of relationships with some professors and students who saw promise in his writing.
After earning his bachelor's degree in 1908, Lewis wrote for newspapers and publishing houses in hopes of becoming a full-time writer. That same year he moved to New York City where he became a freelance writer. In 1912, Lewis published his first novel, Hike and the Aeroplane. In 1914, he married Grace Livingston Hegger, and also published Our Mr Wrenn:...

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Cravet 1
Maxim Cravet
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Professor LewisMain Character
March 9th, 2014
Main Character Synopsis
Tracy Letts drama, ‘August: Osage County’, is a story whose plot focuses on a
dysfunctional family’s forced reunion, triggered by the death of the family patriarch,
Beverly Weston. The Weston family and members thereof, are dealing with issues
currently at hand and problems from their past, mainly brought on by the actions of the
family matriarch, Violet. Throughout the play, all the fights stem out from Violets
inappropriate conduct, effectively putting her at the root of the problem. Through her
sharp tongue and impulsive behavior, Violet constantly shifts the focus of attention to
herself and her issues, affirming her role as the lead character.
Throughout ​
August: Osage County​
, Violet’s nitroglycerine like personality leads
the reader to pay attention to her character that much more, awaiting the moment she
goes off like dynamite. In the prologue of the play, when the audience is first
introduced to Violet, she is high on pills, slurring her words and hallucinating to a
certain extent. For example, ‘VIOLET:Why don’t you go fuck a fucking sow’s ass?
BEVERLY: Alright. VIOLET: I’m sorry. I’ll be sickly sweet. I’m soooooooo sweet.
In­el­abrially sweet.’(Letts ...

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Spring 2011
Gloria Holder Jr.
Dr. Simms-Burton
Discussion Board Response
Realism, Naturalism and Modernism
Richard Wright
Realism is nothing more, nothing less than the truthful treatment of material. Naturalism is an extension but also a departure of realism. Modernism is an attempt to break away from the traditional norms. The norms are political, religious, and social institutions. Realism, in The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, is “faithful reproduction or illusion of material “reality”; and naturalism, observed by Lorraine Hansberry is “you simply photograph the garbage can” (Gates and McKay 1356). “Modernist literature is an opening up of the world in all of its forms - theoretically, philosophically, aesthetically, and politically” (Melton)
Richard Wright, an African American who was born into a life filled with of gloom, poverty, and racial prejudice became one of the world’s most prolific novelists. He received huge success with the producing of Native Son. In The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, the writings of Native Son “made him the first African American to receive both critical acclaim and commercial success simultaneously” (Gate and McKay 1400). The day Native Son appeared, American culture was changed forever. No matter how much qualifying the book might later need, it made impossible a repetition of old lies" Irving Howe (Reuben). Wright admired for his early pragmatic...

...Poetry Explication Guidelines
The following can serve as a general outline for your explications. You will have to add and organize your own subheadings, or you may have to delete some sections. You may also use other orders of ideas that may suit your particular content. Just be sure your explication is thorough and organized.
I. Introduction
a. (Include such items as what is the poem title, who is the author, and where did you get your copy? What is the theme and subject of the poem?)
II. The poem
a. (Is it a lyric poem? Is it an ode, haiku, sonnet or some other form you can identify?)
III. Paraphrases of lines/stanzas
IV. Traits and examples/explanations
a. (This is where you discuss alliteration, allusion, metaphor, rhythm, rhyme, etc organize this part in a way that best fits your content. For instance, you might want to discuss the sound traits first, then go on to the figurative traits such as personification, symbol, metaphor, etc.)
V. Theme
a. (Propose what the theme is and support/defend your interpretation. The object is to show that you have reached a reasonable conclusion. Think Rockwell painting-How do you know? What evidence supports your interpretation?)
VI. Evaluation
a. (Make judgments about the poem. SUGGESTIONS/EXAMPLES: How well did the author do at making his/her point or creating an intended mood or other impact? Which elements were the...

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Ashley Rattner
November 18 2014
Explication Essay
!
That’s The Way It is
Written by Tupac Shakur in 1992, the songs “Changes” dramatizes the conflict between
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equality for his people; he wants to see a change in African American society, not only from
other races, but from the African Americans themselves. Tupac delivers the powerful line: “We
gotta make a change. It's time for us as a people to start making some changes. Let’s change the
way we eat, let’s change the way we live, and let’s change the way we treat each other” in hopes
to shed light on important social issues such as racism, equality, peace, and unity.
To Tupac, this song was more than just lyrics written to a catchy beat, it was a product of
his own thoughts on social issues; each lyric written served it’s own purpose. Through this,
Tupac was able to incorporate relevant social truths and issues while still maintaining an intricate
rhyme scheme. The song opens with the lyrics “I see no changes. Wake up in the morning and I
ask myself, “Is life worth living?”.. I’m tired of being poor and even worse I’m black.” which
illustrates how African American’s lived during the time of Tupac’s writing; they suffered from a
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...﻿I. SUBJECT
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, is story about the journey of a young woman, Skeeter, standing up for what she believes in and following her dreams. This story is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960’s, which is the height of the Civil Rights movement period. The story is through the viewpoint of three narrators: Skeeter Phalen, Aibileen Clark, and Minny Jackson. Skeeter is the main narrator out of the three. She is a young white woman returning home after receiving her journalism degree from Ole Miss. She is reuinited by her friends, Hilly Holbrook and Elizabeth Leefolt.. After receiving a job at the Jackson Journal writing for the home cleaning section, she goes to Aibileen, Elizabeth’s colored maid, for help. She and Aibileen develop a close relationship over time through the columns. She comes up with the idea to write a controversial book with points of views from the help with encouragement from a New York editor and memories from her own maid, Constantine.
Hilly Holbrook, who was one of Skeeter’s best friends, provides her with motivation after strongly imposing segregation with her bathroom sanitation initiative. Aibileen Clark, the Leefolt’s maid, and Minny Jackson, Celia’s maid, are two maids that are affected by Hilly’s bathroom sanitation initiative. Minny was once Hilly’s maid but was fired and now is Miss Celia’s maid. With the help of Aibileen’s determination, she convinces Minny to help with the stories too and eventually...